SXSW 2011: HESHER

Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in Hesher.

Kid snuff

By John Esther

Poor 13-year-old TJ (Devin Brochu). His mother (Monica Staggs) recently died in a car crash. His dad, Paul (Rainn Wilson), responds to the tragedy with futile numbness and a bully named Dustin (Brendan Hill) habitually harasses the boy at school. What is a grieving boy, who is also prone to accidents, to do? Enter Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a young man who lives in a van.

Hesher is hardly the ideal helper. He drinks, smokes and does whatever the hell he wants. A walking menace who stabs his food while eating, climbs up telephone poles in his underwear and blows up things, Hesher (a term meaning someone into heavy metal) moves into the house with TJ, Paul and grandma (Piper Laurie) and immediately becomes the man of the house, with guitar in hand.

Rather than provide proper guidance to TJ’s woes, Hesher in many ways intensifies them. He gets TJ into all sorts of trouble the youngster does not need. Or does he?

Directed by Spencer Susser and co-written by Susser and David Michôd, Hesher offers an unconventional way of dealing with grief. Whereas TJ and dad let the world beat them down, Hesher fights back. The reactions between Hesher on one side and dad and TJ on the other are extreme, yet the film supports the idea that fighting back , even if it calls for violence (more against property than people), is the way to go.

Performances by Gordon-Levitt, Laurie and Natalie Portman (playing a young woman beaten down by economic woes) are solid, while Brochu seems to have a sound acting career ahead of him. Wilson, a comedian and co-star of TV’s The Office, takes a chance with this dramatic role and it pays off. The writing is uneven but amusing enough to make the film worth a watch.

After waiting over a year since its screenign at Sundance 2010, Hesher is slated for release later this year.

FILM REVIEW: ELEKTRA LUXX

 Holly (Adrianne Palicki) in Elektra Luxx.

Pornetic license

By Don Simpson

Porn blogger extraordinaire Burt Rodriguez (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) gets us all up to date the au naturale blond bombshell, Elektra Luxx (Carla Gugino channeling Brigitte Bardot), and her recent retirement from a legendary career as an A-list porn star. Elektra is pregnant with her now-deceased rock star boyfriend’s child triggering an existential crisis: What does a retired porn star do? What kind of mother will she be? What will her child think of her?

Cora (Marley Shelton), a flight attendant, confesses to Elektra that Nick died while riding the friendly skies (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean?) in an airplane restroom with her. As a condolence, Cora provides Elektra with a stolen stash of Nick's newest songs -- all of which are about Elektra -- with the caveat that Elektra utilize her voluptuously feminine wiles to seduce Cora's husband, whom Cora feels incredibly guilty about cheating on. (It is the age old theory that if her hubby cheats on her, then they will be on an even playing field forever more.)

Elektra reluctantly agrees (for one, she is a porn star not a prostitute), but in a case of mistaken identity she seduces Dellwood (Timothy Olyphant), a hunky private investigator  instead. Oopsies! And that one itsy bistsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini of a mistake snowballs into an out of control avalanche. These are the mad cap forays that daytime soap operas are made!

There are multiple subplots and sidebars, including one about up-and-coming porn star, Holly Rocket (Adrianne Palicki). Poor Holly is not the “sharpest tool in the shed” and her feeble little brain is wrestling with the question of whether or not she should reveal that she has sexy dreams about her best friend, Bambi (Emmanuelle Chriqui), with whom she is on vacation in Mexico. Neither Holly nor Bambi are lesbians -- they both enjoy the occasional nip of a Dickens' cider -- but Holly definitely craves more intimacy from her best friend.

One of the many moralistic morsels to be found within Gutierrez’s complex narrative is, to quote Burt Rodriguez: “Porn stars are people, too.” Another is that human sexuality involves a whole lot more gray areas than black and white; the line between hetero and homo is as blurred as the definition of love itself.

The structure of Gutierrez’s story closely resembles that of soap operas, with a constant bouncing back and forth between seemingly unrelated tales and a few dream sequences tossed in for good measure. With Elektra Luxx, Gutierrez chooses to focus mostly on Elektra and Burt, but allows plenty of precious screen time for presumably concurrent subplots involving Holly, Cora, Dellwood, Elektra’s neighbor, Jimmy (Vincent Kartheiser), as well as Burt’s sister, Olive (Amy Rosof), and love interest, Trixie (Malin Ackerman). Some critics have criticized Gutierrez’s ADHD approach to filmmaking, but it does allow him to flash his true cojones: his keen knack for crafting intriguing, beguiling and profound female characters. (Julianne Moore’s all too brief cameo is truly inspired by genius.) To quote one of my favorite Robyn Hitchcock songs -- one that also happens to be cleverly showcased in an Elektra Luxx dream sequence: “All I wanna do is fall in love” with each and every one of Gutierrez’s ladies. Gutierrez apparently loves and respects his female characters, avoiding any gratuitous nudity (he shows more male nudity than female) -- a strategy that plays in brilliant opposition to the porn industry.

The icing on the proverbially verbose cake is Gutierrez’s playful use of witty and humorous dialogue. There is no pretension of realism here, as each sentence is precisely manicured and coiffed (just like the characters) for the utmost comedic effect. Sure the scenes seem overtly staged but that is precisely the point. Have you ever listened to the dialogue of a porn flick or a soap opera?

Elektra Luxx is the second installment in director Sebastian Gutierrez’s trilogy, picking up one month after the first film, Women in Trouble, ended. You do not need to see Women in Trouble in order to follow Elektra Luxx yet I strongly recommend watching Women in Trouble nonetheless.